Kasparov takes Corus, Anand second

When the strongest ever chess tournament finally came to an end after 13 rounds, only two players were left standing with the cachet of not suffering a defeat -- Garry Kasparov, and Vishwanathan Anand.

Of the two, Kasparov, with 9 points in 13 rounds, claimed the title -- and completed a historic hat-trick, becoming the only player in history to have won the title at Wijk Aan Zee (Netherlands) three times in a row (or even three times, for that matter).

Anand, meanwhile, had a rather strange tournament. In the early rounds, barring games against Kasparov and Kramnik (both fighting draws), Anand seemed to be playing while suffering the after-effects of too much celebration (it will be recalled that in the third week of December, Anand had won the gruelling FIDE world championship cycle).

Thus, he found himself playing lacklustre games and time and again, escaping after playing himself into bad positions (most notably against Alexei Shirov). But just when it looked like the Indian ace would be consigned to the also-rans, came a late surge that saw him winning three in a row to move to 8.5 points, and claim the second place.

On Saturday, in the penultimate round, Anand faced Jan Timman, who in the 11th round had lost to Garry Kasparov. Playing the black side of a Queen’s Indian Defense, Anand opted for a sharp, attacking game in the centre, forcing Timman to miscalculate. The hallmark of the game was a clever 20th move by Anand, which paved the way for a devastating attack on the white centre and finally, to the win.

In the final round, Anand took on Loek Van Wely -- who, again, had just come through with a good draw against Kasparov in the 12th round. This time, it was Anand playing the white side of a Sicilian Defence, Najdorf Variation. The opening resolved into a situation of opposite-sided attacks, wherein Anand's superior control of the centre became the decisive factor. Van Wely attempted to sharpen his attack with a pawn sacrifice which Anand accepted, then continued to build a formidable central position that Van Wely was unable to counter. The win gave Anand second place in the tournament -- a very creditable result, considering that he had, just three rounds previously, been lying well behind the leaders.

Meanwhile, Garry Kasparov drew round 13, against world number four Michael Adams, and clinched his third successive title. In the post-tournament press conference, Kasparov pointed out that though he had won thrice on the trot, his score had been consistently going down: 10 points out of 13 in 1999, 9½/13 in 2000 and 9/13 in 2001. Yet, he said, he rates this latest win the best, because it was against the strongest ever field assembled for a tournament of this kind.

In other last round action, Alexander Morozevich, who had become the popular favourite thanks to his high-risk, entertaining style of play, took on Alexei Shirov, another player who tends to play with a degree of flamboyance. Vasselin Topalov and Leko, similarly, engaged in a game played to the galleries, both games ending in entertaining draws. Vassily Ivanchuk meanwhile accounted for Jan Timman, and shared third spot with BGN world champion Vladimir Kramnik -- who, for his part, was forced to draw with Jeroen Piket despite the advantage of white pieces.

Meanwhile Michael Gurevich, by winning the Group B tournament, qualified for the top group next year. India's rising star, Pentyala Harikrishna, meanwhile, got his second GM norm at the age of fourteen.

An interesting, and offbeat, result was the victory by Victoria Cmilyte in the reserve round -- interesting, mainly because she is Alexei Shirov's girlfriend.

Final scores, and standings:

1: Garry Kasparov (Russia) 9/13,
2: Vishwanathan Anand (India) 8.5/13
3-4: Vassili Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) 8/13
5-7: Michael Adams (England), Alexander Morozevich (Russia), Alexei Shirov (Spain) 7.5/13
8: Peter Leko (Hungary) 6.5/13
9: Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) 5.5/13
10-11. Alexei Fedorov (BLR), Loek Van Wely (NLD) 5/13,
12-13: Jeroen Piket (NLD), Sergei Tiviakov (NLD) 4.5/13,
14: Jan Timman (NLD) 4/13